U.S. government could learn something from Pasadena

ROY N. KENT

Published 11:10 pm, Saturday, April 9, 2011

While the city of Pasadena and the Pasadena Independent School District has been working hard to make cuts as budgets exceed projected receipts, the U.S. government was bickering over cuts and nearing a complete shutdown.

Why is it so hard to make up and play nice? Democrats blame Republicans and Republicans blame Democrats for the near shutdown (it was announced late Friday night that a stop-gap measure had been put into place to avert a total shutdown).

The city of Pasadena has been dealing with budget problems for a couple of years now. Services have been curtailed, hiring has been limited to only essential positions and as much as can be cut has been cut.

The Pasadena Independent School District has been making drastic cuts to its budget as it deals with what it sees as a big dropoff in state funding. Hundreds of employees will be losing their jobs as the district struggles to make ends meet.

It is no secret that I think school funding should be the first thing the state funds. An educated society is a healthy society. Educated students make replacing a retiring workforce a not-so-scary endeavor. And for companies which are facing the reality of retiring Baby Boomers leaving a shortfall in the number of workers, it means they will have an adequate number of employees to fill roles.

But meanwhile, the U.S. government is squabbling. Funding should be limited to essentials until the country gets out of the mess it is currently in. New museums, studies and the like don’t need to be funded right now. Let’s pay for what we have and delay everything else until it’s needed.

What is really needed is for real people to get involved. Lawyers and doctors know how to spend money they don’t have, apparently.

Small business owners make cuts when they come up short. Cities make cuts when they come up short. School districts make cuts when they come up short.

Once again, the federal government needs to see how real people are coping with a bad economy and follow suit.

It is naïve to think that any congressman will be stopping by Pasadena and seeking help from the city in balancing a national budget, but they have certainly done worse thus far.

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